The role of religion was of paramount importance in the change of attitudes and approaches to health care and charity which took place in the centuries following the Council of Trent. Health Care and Poor Relief in Counter-Reformation Europe, examines the effects of the Counter-Reformation on health care and poor relief in Southern Catholic Europe in the period between 1540 and 1700.
As well as a comprehensive introduction discussing issues of the nature of the Catholic or Counter-Reformation and the welfare provisions of the period, Health Care and Poor Relief sets the period in its social, economic, religious and ideological context. The book draws on the practices in different localities in Southern Europe, ranging from the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Naples to Germany and Austria. These examples establish how and why a revitalised and strenghtened post-Tridentine Catholic church managed to reshape and reinvigorate welfare provisions in Southern Europe.

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Table of Contents

Brian Pullan, Manchester University, The Counter-Reformation, Medical Care and Poor Relief; Jonathan Israel, University College London, Counter-Reformation, Economic Decline, and the Delayed Impact of the Medical and Health-Care Revolution of the Seventeenth Century in Catholic Europe; John Henderson, University of Cambridge, Charity and Welfare in Early Modern Tuscany; Silvia De Renzi , University of Cambridge, 'A Fountain for the Thirsty' and a bank for the Pope: Charity, Conflicts, and Medical Careers at the Hospital of Santo Spirito in 17th Century Rome; David Gentilcore, Leicester University, 'Cradle of Saints and Useful Institutions': Health Care and Poor Relief in the Kingdom of Naples; Jon Arrizbalaga, CSIC, Barcelona, Poor Relief in Counter-Reformation Castile: An Overview; Maria Luz Lopez Terrada, University of Valencia, Health Care and Poor Relief in the Crown of Aragon; Isabel M R Mendes Drummond Braga, University of Lisbon, Poor Relief in Counter-Reformation Portugal: The Case of the Misericordias; Colin Jones, Warwick University, Perspectives on Poor Relief, Health Care and the Counter-Reformation in France; Martin Dinges, Institut fur Geschichte der Medizin der Robert Bosch Stiftung, Stuttgart Health Care and Poor Relief in Regional Southern France in the Counter-Reformation; Bernd Roeck, Rheinischen Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universitat, Bonn Health Care and Poor Relief in Counter-Reformation Catholic Germany.